No Rainbow Without the Rain

  It has been a rough week.  But it's going to get better...it has to get better.

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Hope, Education and Trying Your Best = Something You Don't Want Your Kids to Hear?

Being a teacher I was given the opportunity to show today's presidential speech to my class. However, there were some hoops I had to jump through. First, I had to write a lesson plan (complete with pre and post activities) and submit it to my principal to be pre-approved. Second, I had to have a relevant tie to 6th grade core curriculum. Third, I had to prepare work for those students who don't have permission that would be equivalent to what we did with the video. And fourth, I had to send home letters to parents to get approval from them.

With what went on in my classroom last week and the fact that I was supposed to be off track today, I didn't have the energy to worry about it. Now that I've watched it online, I can't believe it was so controversial. I also fully plan on showing it when my class goes back on track. I'm writing my lesson plan now. Sure it's going to be a month later and some kids may have seen it already but I'm going to make sure that all kids have the opportunity to see it and talk about it.

Since when do we not want the leader of our country to encourage students to work hard in school?

I would love for someone to explain to me why this is a horrible thing. Seriously, I'll listen. I just want to know what the big deal was.

Here's some quotes from the speech that I enjoyed:

"I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide."

"Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. . .Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength because it shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something, and that then allows you to learn something new. So find an adult that you trust -- a parent, a grandparent or teacher, a coach or a counselor -- and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals."

"And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you, don't ever give up on yourself, because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country."

"Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. . . you've got to do your part, too. So I expect all of you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down. Don't let your family down or your country down. Most of all, don't let yourself down. Make us all proud."

Wrath of Miss J

I told my students on Tuesday that if I got a bad report from the sub that they would feel my wrath. I was hoping that would scare them enough but apparently it didn't.

I also realized last night that I'm not really an angry, wrathful person. After talking to the other 6th grade teachers, I decided that I would just be normal during the day until we talked about it.

So here's a play-by-play of the day:

I got everything ready for the day and made sure I was out of the room when they came in. I came in to utter silence and a lot of scared faces. All I said was, "I heard we have a lot of thieves in this class but don't worry about it right now. We have a lot of work to do and we'll talk about it during lunch." That made many "who didn't do anything wrong" very angry. I told them to sit down and get to work.

So all day I was normal. We went through P.E., reading groups, and the rest of the morning like nothing happened. By we, I actually mean I. My students were so scared I'm sure some of them pooped their pants. And 2 mysteriously got sick right before lunch...hmmm?

So right before we lined up for lunch, I told them they were all going to sit together at the same table and were not allowed to leave before I came back to get them. "What? At the same table? We can't sit by our friends?" No. You're a bunch of "buttheads" (they actually called themselves this later in the story), sit down and be quiet.

So I go back and get them from lunch and we go to the classroom. I didn't know where to start so I just sat back and looked mean and said, "Who wants to start?" They all looked at me like a deer in the headlights. Finally someone raised their hand and we had a big discussion first on what actually happened and then I told them they broke my heart and cried like a baby again.

I told them how I can't trust them right now but I still like them and I would never hate them. I told them they would have to work really hard to earn my trust back. I cried and carried on for about 10 minutes. We had 10 minutes until recess would have been over so I said, "I'm going to leave you here to think about what you did while I go finish my lunch." And I walked out to the sound of nothing but sniffles.

When I came back in, they were all silently writing letters of apology to me. They all handed them to me and I got ready to go on to writing. We were going to read a book and then write a similar story but I couldn't do it hearing such loud sniffling. So we stopped, pushed the desks back and made a pact to work harder from today on. Then I just let them pass a small ball around and get whatever off their chest. I thought it would be 20-30 minutes tops. We did this for an hour and 15 minutes.

The kids were opening up about all kinds of stuff. And everyone was crying. It was amazing to me that they would all feel that comfortable to cry like they did. It was fantastic but very emotionally exhausting.

I also had recess duty today so all the girls were coming up to me and hugging me and bonding like girls do after they've all cried together.

Oh, what a odd few days. Now we go off track tomorrow and I hope that they remember their pact to try harder tomorrow and the rest of the year.

It felt like I really got through to them today. So many of them talked about how they come from families who are drug addicts or gang members and how they don't want to go down that same road. Woot for hopefully beginning to change lives.